What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime

What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.

As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.

That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.

Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.

Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.

Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.

Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.

That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.

Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.

Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.

My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.

Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.

And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.

All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:

• Farm eggs

• Fresh vegetables

• Cow’s milk

• Freshly baked bread

• Coal for our open fires

Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.

Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.

Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.

Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.

My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.

The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.

Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.

Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.

People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.

In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.

Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.

• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.

• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.

• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.

On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.

Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.

We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.

Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.

My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.

How to Get Your Private Party Auto Loans

The problem occurs when the individual planning to buy the car does not have enough cash to make the down payment. That’s where private party auto loans come in. They provide a way out for such individuals who desire to finance their vehicles and don’t have enough resources to make their down payments.What are private party auto loans?It’s not mandatory to get your auto loan from traditional car dealers or banks. It’s possible to negotiate with private parties and finance your commutation needs. One way of doing this is to get your credit facility from a private party who specialize in providing car loans without any down payment. Typically, in order to avail private loans, it’s important to find a vehicle that’s offered for sale by the original owner. At times neighbors, relatives, acquaintances, and colleagues decide to change their car, and put up their old car for sale. They often advertise their sale in local newspapers, magazines, and even advert their vehicle online in forums and portals supporting classified ads. One can get a good deal from such sources.Once the particular model or make is selected, the current owner has to be contacted for the sale price and vehicle specs. Thereafter, through proper price negotiation, it becomes possible to get a decent price for the car. The major advantage in these kinds of person to person auto loan sales is there are no brokers or dealers involved, and so the price of the car does not include the brokerage or commission. The buyer gets a potential discount that way.And the second advantage is you end up communicating with the actual owner, and not the auto dealer, so you end up with first hand information regarding the vehicle’s performance and history, including various aspects such as maintenance, insurance, any previous accident history, etc. The third advantage is you end up paying an affordable price for your car, since used cars cost significantly less. The used auto loans private party monthly loan repayment amount is therefore less, so it’s easier to repay. This actually improves your credit scores and ratings, since FICO scores increase with regular payments.How to apply for private party auto loans?The process is quite simple. The buyer generally searches online for cars offered for sale, and browses the list of vehicles. Thereafter, a few of the models and makes satisfying the buyer’s requirement are short-listed. The buyer has two choices. Either to contact the seller directly and negotiate the sale after checking out the vehicle, or apply online after filling up an application form. The forms are simple in nature and some basic information has to be provided by the applicants.Alternately, the buyer can also specify some specific requirements such as mileage, age of the car, specific model or make, and even the year of manufacturing in rare cases. Some buyers also request for information related to the existing owner to ascertain how well the car has been maintained, how many services it has had, and also some specific data associated with the insurance policy or claims linked with the car.Once the car and the owner has been decided, the second step is to approach the lender. If you’ve applied online, a loan provider will be made available to you so you don’t have to search for one. In case you’ve negotiated directly, and if your credit ratings are low, it’s recommended you search online for bad credit private party auto loans provider and fill up the application form to avail your credit facility.What are eligibility for private party auto loans?One needs to qualify for private party loans. Generally, the norms related to the eligibility remain more or less common amongst the providers, and are narrated as follows:o The applicant should be of 18 years of age or above.
o The minimum income per week should be $418 or $21,736 annually.
o The borrower should have lived for more than six months within the last two residences mentioned in the form.
o The applicant should have worked for more than six months with the last two employers mentioned in the application form.
o The borrower should not have filed for bankruptcy, nor be involved with any ongoing bankruptcy.
o The individual should possess a valid social security number.Many private money lenders advertise their loan products online so sufficient choices are available. Once you submit your application online, the company executive co-ordinates with the potential buyer to get the required documentation and contact details.

Let Hostgator Help You Do More Business Online

HostGator can help you boost your online sales. Doing business online can be highly profitable, but only if you can figure out how to get your piece of the online pie. With millions of websites being created everyday, sometimes it can be hard not to get lost in the crowd.There are some elements that all of the most successful business websites have, and HostGator can give you all of them. Competition online is fierce, and small businesses need the tools that HostGator offers in order to get noticed and get sales. Use these tools from HostGator to boost your online sales and take your online business to the next level of success…Integrated Shopping Cart – The most important tool for getting more online sales is to have a website with a fully integrated shopping cart. If there are problems with the shopping cart, customers won’t wait around to see if it works, or wait and contact you in order to purchase, they will just move on to another site that has a functional cart.With HostGator you can use the shopping cart that they offer which is built to work with their web hosting service or you can use one of the many different plug and play shopping carts on the Web. No matter what shopping cart you want to use, it should work with HostGator. Never worry about whether or not your cart is functional again and watch your online sales climb.Marketing Tools – Successful online businesses have become experts at using blogs, social networking sites, and other new media in order to sell their products and drive traffic to their websites. HostGator gives you the tools that you need to do that too. Add a blog to your website for your free, integrate sharing tools so that customers can post items to their favorite social networking sites, and use the new media tools that HostGator offers to market your website to today’s web savvy customers. Mastering the art of online marketing is a lot easier with the tools that you get for free from HostGator with any regular hosting account. You can also get $50 of credit for Google AdWords free when you sign up for an account.Stats – Finding out how customers are searching for your site, what terms they are using, and what pages they are visiting on your site is important data. Knowing what your customers are looking for, what products they like and what products they don’t is valuable information that you need to have in order to create a viable, affordable marketing plan that will reach your target market.Many businesses don’t have a lot of money to spend on marketing and promotion, especially these days, and having accurate, detailed demographic data can help business owners save money and create more efficient and effective marketing campaigns. HostGator gives all account holders a very detailed stats package that can be used to help create a viable online marketing campaign that will boost internet sales.These are just some elements that HostGator Web Hosting offers that can really help your online business thrive and empower the webmaster to build and structure their website correctly – for success!